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Delmore

Ok, after the comments made in the old thread (which was in the wrong area so can I request a Mod to delete it please) I done some rework on the original map and also started taking some of the kingdoms and started work on regional maps for them.

So there's a number of files attach to this, ones the reworked world map with rough kingdoms mark on. The other is a Map of the Kingdom of High Daria (No towns on it yet, as i still not 100% sure I like the base map).

The world map, as lost the lands around the north pole, because we decide they really wouldn't have been there, (would have been an icecap) So removed them added sea to that area. and smoothed out some of the other islands in places. But this is mainly done with Fractal Terrain Pro and a very small amount of GIMP work to clear up a couple of errors that I couldn't get rid of in FT. But hopefully the effect is better than before.

The Kingdom map was done in GIMP, using the great guide i found here by RobA here. The way i got the base image for it, was by setting Fractal Terrain to land being all white and sea to all black, to give me a very defined map which i could then cut out the individual islands for the kingdoms, increase their sizes and actually go from there. Worked pretty well in general. Still not convinced on the forests and i think the mountains I might stick a second lay of them on to give some more height. This was actually the second one I did the first being of Ashendas, which was ok, but i think I will redo it as the second attempt is a lot better.

I also really dig RobA's artistic map tut. One thing I've found, though, is that you often end up with pretty clean cut shorelines, which can look odd. I solve this by applying a Displace map (the same thing you would use to make the seashore effect) which roughens up the coastlines a bit. I feel like it makes them a bit more interesting.

Your rivers seem like they're pretty much in the right places (I'm definitely not the river police), though I feel like the bump mapping to bevel them is a bit heavy. Some seem a bit too straight as well. My method for drawing the rivers is usually to use the smallest available brush with the Pencil tool and a spacing of 1. Then draw a fairly meandering line. When I get my rivers in the right places and looking right, you can just Alpha to Selection that layer of thin lines, and grow the selection if you need the rivers to be wider. It can make your rivers a bit longer, but that's nothing you can't solve with a steady hand and the eraser tool if necessary.

I think your blur on the Mountains layer mask is a bit big, and the noise spread RobA mentions in the guide does look good, so you might try that. Your mountain bump mapping seems a bit light, so it might help to duplicate that layer. It would be a good idea to add your rivers to your Dirt layer mask, so that they don't cover up your rivers. The forests and mountains one can buy as covering a body of water, but it's a bit difficult to imagine a beach obscuring an outgoing river.

But yeah, looks good, keep working on it.

"Unless I'm allowed to carry around a gun to shoot their giant killer-spiders, Australia needs to stay the hell away from me. Also Australians, who if they have lived this long are obviously agents of the spiders and not to be trusted."

Now for something different

Ok, after having some fun with the regional maps, and learning some new methods with GIMP, (got to love some of the tutorials around here). I thought i try my hands at a totally different style map, and make up whats more of an explorer map / players handout for my game. with more rough design and not full details. So I came up with this. I reasonable happy with it, still need to add details to the other islands but still developing those anyhow.

Looking at it I need to lighten off the rivers at the very least, but I feel it looks ok for my first computer one of these. (I usually hand draw these and scan them in).